World of Warcraft# 3 Comic Book - DC Comics / Wildstorm

Rehgar takes Lo’Gosh and Broll to Thunder Bluff for a cleansing ritual. Unfortunately for the pair, lurking beneath the surface of the Pools of Vision is a force like nothing they’ve ever faced before! The future looks dark for Lo’Gosh as new threats mount against him in this epic title from Walter Simonson and Ludo Lullabi!

Dire Maul is emptying out. Rehgar’s team leaves cheered on by everyone. Between the sale of Valeera and his personal winnings from the arena matches, Rehgar’s set up for life.

Broll is angry that Valeera was sold to a different team. Helka Grimtotem’s all-female team has an orc and a troll, who push and pick on Valeera. She plans to escape and rescue Broll and Lo’Gosh from Rehgar.

Captain Grizzgear, also newly rich from bettin on Rehgar, takes the team to Thunder Bluff. Broll tells Lo’Gosh of the Pools of Vision, where he hopes Lo’Gosh will regain some of his memory. Broll also wants to see his lost daughter, who resembles Valeera in a way.

A red-masked Defias thug meets with a blonde, robed person, face hidden in shadows. He swears to the person that Lo’Gosh is the one they took and tells the person that the team headed to Thunder Bluff. He is rewarded a bag of gold. The hooded figure then instructs a henchman named Gakca to kill the masked man and contact the Stormwind Assassins’ Guild.

Arriving at Thunder Bluff, Broll tells Lo’Gosh there is friction between Magatha and Cairne. She meets them personally as Rehgar wants a tauren to replace Valeera. She disdainfully calls Cairne a pacifist and an old fool, and appears eager to provide Rehgar with Grimtotem warriors. They would not be slaves but indentured gladiators for the orc, and she wants her warriors to be well-trained and battle-hardened (I sense trouble for Cairne in the future…).

Magatha tells the party that a cave elemental has been loosed inside the Pools of Vision and chased all the Forsaken out. Cairne is not in town.

In Dire Maul, Helka sends her team off to Thunder Bluff on wyverns. Valeera rides one named Bristlefur, and her escort Tarm Grimtotem. The blood elf launches off with a kick, pretending to not know how to navigate the wyvern, and Tarm barely manages to hold on.

Valeera distracts Tarm with talk of forests and plains, then yanks Bristlefur around. The tauren is flung off, and lands on a wyvern below. Valeera steers the beast below the canopy and hides.

Against Magatha’s warnings, Broll and Lo’Gosh enter the Pools of Vision. Their chains are removed by the slavers who guard the entrance to the caves. The two sit down into the pools and study its waters.

Lo’Gosh sees the shadow of a fair-haired female. She reaches out to him and touches him. His vision-self seems only a few years younger. She calls him her husband and tells him his people needs him… that his son needs him. In her arms, she holds an infant boy who yells “papa!”

Broll sees raging fires. His daughter yells “An’da!” which also means papa, in Elvish. There is fire everywhere, and his daughter screams for him to save her. Then she turns into Valeera, who also yells for him to help her. She reaches for him, but her hand turns to stone. In fact, it is the hand of the cave elemental, who picks Broll up one-handed. It is a huge creature, similar to the crystal colossi in Outland.

The cave elemental tries to drown Broll but he cracks its skull and blinds one of its eyes. It roars, breaking Lo’Gosh from his trance. The elemental drops Broll and is distracted by Lo’Gosh when he breaks a rock over its foot. Lo’Gosh gets picked up, and smashes another rock into a stalagmite, causing a cave-in. The giant beast gets crushed, while the humanoids get away. Lo’Gosh finally plans to escape from Rehgar in order to find his son and his people.

Hamuul Runetotem is having dinner with Rehgar. Neither of them like Magatha, and Hamuul suspects her of being behind the elemental. Lo’Gosh and Broll are taken to the arch druid’s tent. Hamuul tells the legend of the original Lo’Gosh – a massive, white wolf-beast renowned for its ferocity in battle, 10 000 years old when the first invasion came to Azeroth. (As a creature demi-god, he can be compared to Malorne, Agamaggan, and Ursol/Ursok). The wolf god slaughtered hundreds of demons before he fell in the invasion. But not even death could destroy his will.

Broll continues the tale, describing the great ghostly wolf the night elves call Goldrinn. He aided the night elves in Eldre’Thalas in holding their city against the Burning Legion, only to vanish after battle and never be seen again. Hamuul says the wolf’s legend extends through Azeroth, to trolls, goblins and dwarves who all have their own version of the story. In each tale, Lo’Gosh’s unyielding will and sheer ferocity enable him to push through the boundaries of the afterlife to aid his people.

Hamuul gives Lo’Gosh a feather. The warrior is sceptical of the gift, but Broll recognizes it as a magical hippogryph feather. The night elf uses it to call the hippogryph Sharptalon from Ashenvale, and runs off with Lo’Gosh and the screaming guards in tow. Lo’Gosh cuts off the slavers by slashing the rope bridge behind him.

Meanwhile, Valeera arrives wyvernback under the cover of night. She sees the hippogryph land and take off again with Broll and Lo’Gosh on its back. Rehgar is close by, but seems quite unperturbed that his finest warriors are escaping. While Valeera spies on him, Rehgar tells Hamuul that in a way, they were always as free as their hearts let them be. He knows Hamuul let them escape on purpose, but nevertheless sends slavers on wyverns after them.

In Stormwind, the cloaked blonde scryes on Lo’Gosh’s flight though a glowing golden disc. Nearby stands a tall stately man with a very long golden braid, dressed in black leathers. He is the assassin sent to kill Lo’Gosh, and his work is guaranteed by the Assassins’ Guild. The cloaked figure wants Lo’Gosh killed subtly so as to not draw any unwarranted attention. It’s vital that his death appear natural. As they watch, a slaver knocks Lo’Gosh off Sharptalon’s back to tumble through open air high above the plains of Mulgore…